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The city of Vindobona (Vienna) is struck by an epidemic that spreads through the Roman provinces.

The disease is probably streptococcus or a form of scarlet fever with streptococcus pneumoniae (approximate date).

Austria comes under the rule of the Babenberg Margraves from 976, initially under Leopold of Babenberg, known as Leopold the Illustrious.

The Babenbergs will rule Austria until 1246.

The origins of Leopold the Illustrious are not known.

According to early traditions, documented by Bishop Otto of Freising in the twelfth century, he is descended from Count Adalbert of Bamberg (died 906) and the Franconian Babenberg family whose genealogy is documented in Franconia Nobility.

According to some sources, his father Berthold was count of the Nordgau, the region north of Ratisbon in Bavaria A more recent theory identifies Leopold as the son of Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria.

While his ancestry is disputed, some affiliation with the ducal Luitpoldings dynasty is probable.

Leopold is first mentioned in a document from 962 as count of the Bavarian Donaugau region by Ratisbon,count of the Traungau region and a faithful follower of Emperor Otto I.

After Otto I had defeated the Magyars in 955, he had reestablished the marchia in the conquered territories, placing them under the command of Burkhard, a brother-in-law of Duchess Judith of Bavaria.

When Burkhard joined the uprising of Henry the Wrangler against Emperor Otto II, he is deposed at the Imperial Diet of Regensburg in 976.

According to a charter dated July 21, 976, Leopold is appointed margrave of the East Mark, the core territory of the later Archduchy of Austria.

Henry turns south, to Italy again, in 1055, for Boniface III of Tuscany, ever an imperial ally, had been assassinated in 1052 and his widow, Beatrice of Bar had married Godfrey of Lorraine in 1054.

First, however, he gives his old hostage, Spytihnev, the son of Bretislaus, to the Bohemians as duke.

Spytihnev does homage and Bohemia remains securely, loyally, and happily within the Imperial fold.

Ernest, born to Margrave Adalbert of Austria and his wife Frozza Orseolo, daughter of Doge Otto Orseolo of Venice, has increased the territory of his margraviate by amalgamating the Bohemian and Hungarian frontier marches up to the Thaya, March and Leitha rivers in what is today Lower Austria.

In his time, the colonization of the remote Waldviertel region is begun by his ministeriales, the Kuenring knights.

Called the Brave, Ernest has received his epithet due to his fighting against King Béla I of Hungary and his son Géza I on behalf of their rival Solomon according to the chronicler Lambert of Hersfeld.

In the commencing Investiture Controversy, he sides with King Henry IV of Germany and battles against the Saxons: he will die at the Battle of Langensalza.

Vienna has become an important center of German civilization in central Europe by the middle of the twelfth century, and the four existing churches, including only one parish church, no longer meet the town's religious needs.

In 1137, Bishop of Passau Reginmar and Margrave Leopold IV had signed the Treaty of Mautern, which referred to Vienna as a civitas for the first time and transferred the St. Peter's Church to the Diocese of Passau.

Under the treaty, Margrave Leopold IV also received from the bishop extended stretches of land beyond the city walls, with the notable exception of the territory allocated for the new parish church, which will eventually become St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Founded in 1137 following the Treaty of Mautern, the partially constructed Romanesque church is solemnly dedicated in 1147 to Saint Stephen in the presence of Conrad III of Germany, Bishop Otto of Freising, and other German nobles who are about to embark on the Second Crusade.

Leopold V of Austria, soon after succeeding his father as Duke of Austria upon the latter’s death on January 13, 1177, had lent his support to Frederick of Bohemia in his struggle against Soběslav II, who had campaigned in the Austrian duchy.

Leopold reaches a peace agreement with Bohemia in 1179.

Leopold V of Austria negotiates the Georgenberg Pact with Ottokar IV of Styria on August 17, 1186, by which Styria and the central part of Upper Austria are to be amalgamated into the Duchy of Austria after 1192.

This is the first step towards the creation of modern Austria.

Richard I of England, having been informed that his brother, John Lackland, was attempting to usurp the throne in England, had arranged for a treaty with Saladin, and the Third Crusade had come to an end when Richard rashly left for England in late October.

However, Philip of France meanwhile had come to terms with John and had closed the French harbors; Richard, forced to make his way across the Adriatic Sea, had gone ashore near Aquileia.

Due to the coming winter, crossing the Alps has proved to be impossible, and the king, incognito, passes through the Austrian capital Vienna shortly before Christmas, where he is recognized, captured and imprisoned at Dürnstein by Duke Leopold, who has not forgotten the slight at Acre.

Leopold's share of the immense ransom, supposedly six thousand buckets—about twenty-three tons—of silver, becomes the foundation for the mint in Vienna, and is used to build new city walls for Vienna, as well as to found the towns of Wiener Neustadt and Friedberg in Styria.

However, the duke has been excommunicated by Pope Celestine III for having taken a fellow crusader prisoner.

Leopold's foot is crushed in 1194 when his horse falls on him at a tournament in Graz.

While advised by his surgeons to have the foot amputated, none declare competence to do so.

He orders his servants to chop it off with an ax, after three swings succeeding.

Nonetheless he succumbs to gangrene, still an excommunicate, and is buried at Heiligenkreuz Abbey.

The anonymous Austrian epic tragedy, the “Nibelungenlied,” written about 1200, combines Teutonic myth with realities of court life in the setting of courtly love and chivalry.

Based on the tales of the Norse “Elder,” or “Poetic Edda” and the “Volsungasaga” but less directly concerned with the gods, the somber tale revolves around heroic feats, royal revenge, and magical powers.

The warrior hero, the near-invulnerable Siegfried, possessed of a cape that bestows the power to become invisible and a wondrous sword called Balmung, enters the territory of the Nibelung kings of Burgundian legend and takes all the symbols of power, including Queen Kriemhild, by prowess.

The fatalistic plot sets Kriemhild and Brunhild of Iceland against each other, and a sequence of complicated reprisals leads to everyone's ultimate downfall.